Organiser sets date for independent UK Mac show

Expo 2000 set for 29-30 September, provisionally

Britain will get its own Mac show, the organiser of the event has confirmed. So yah boo sucks to Apple. The possibility of an independent UK Mac exhibition emerged last week on MacWorld UK's Web site. We've heard a couple of similar ideas from individuals irritated with Apple's decision to pull out of the official Apple Expo 2000, a move that ensured the abandonment of the UK show. However, since none of them proved anything more than pipedreams, we decided to take the MacWorld story very carefully. We're still cautious, but optimistically so, now that organiser International Exhibitions and Conferences (IEC) has come out and said the show will take place on 29 and 30 September at London's Islington Business and Design Centre. It's worth pointing out that that's a provisional booking, so don't put it in your Palm yet - a lot can happen between now and September. "The first show will be in September, but we are considering running two – one in the south in London, another in the north, near Manchester. We believe that there is a large Mac presence in the North of England, particularly in the Manchester area. We don't intend running two in the first year, though," Farhad Alaadin, executive director of IEC owner AppleOnline, told MacWorld. AppleOnline is a London-based Mac-oriented free ISP, so it's not exactly the kind of company you'd expect to be organising a major trade show, though Alaadin claimed the company was "taking expert advice on things". Pre-registration, for instance, currently involves leaving your name, address and email address in return for notification "three to four weeks prior to the show" to see whether you get a free ticket or not. "We are not keen to make money for its own sake," claimed Alaadin. "We'll be charging £10 for tickets, but giving away 5000 tickets to the first 5000 who pre-register online." Much will depend on whether Alaadin can call up the big-name Mac genies that will give the show much-needed kudos - the likes of Adobe and Microsoft, and resellers Computers Unlimited and MacWarehouse, among others. We'll see how he does. ®